HL2 Benchmarks Inside--- 6800GT vs. X800XT PE

[Elfear]

I decided to run a few benchmarks before I sold my 6800GT to my buddy just to see how the two cards stacked up. I've been more than happy with my 6800GT but a deal came around that I couldn't pass up. Anyway here are the results:

Half-Life 2 (66.93 Drivers/Catalyst 4.12, Max Detail, Reflect All)

6800GT

canals_08
1280x1024___4AA/8AF____63.23 FPS
1280x1024___4AA/16AF___62.81 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/8AF____52.36 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___51.75 FPS

coast_05
1280x1024___4AA/8AF____82.55 FPS
1280x1024___4AA/16AF___81.83 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/8AF____73.03 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___72.85 FPS

coast_12
1280x1024___4AA/8AF____70.65 FPS
1280x1024___4AA/16AF___70.84 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/8AF____59.26 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___58.37 FPS

prison_05
1280x1024___4AA/8AF____75.83 FPS
1280x1024___4AA/16AF___76.49 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/8AF____56.02 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___55.79 FPS


6800GT@Ultra (400/1.1)

canals_08
1280x1024___4AA/16AF___65.02 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___58.06 FPS
1600x1200___8SAA/16AF__26.92 FPS

coast_05
1280x1024___4AA/16AF___83.01 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___78.16 FPS

coast_12
1280x1024___4AA/16AF___75.25 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___64.30 FPS

prison_05
1280x1024___4AA/16AF___82.86 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___64.08 FPS
1600x1200___8SAA/16AF__26.08 FPS


X800XT PE
canals_08
1280x1024___4AA/8AF____77.29 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___67.03 FPS
1600x1200___6AA/16AF___63.69 FPS

coast_05
1280x1024___4AA/8AF____100.82 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___96.05 FPS
1600x1200___6AA/16AF___92.98 FPS

coast_12
1280x1024___4AA/8AF____89.01 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___79.00 FPS
1600x1200___6AA/16AF___74.37 FPS

prison_05
1280x1024___4AA/8AF____98.08 FPS
1600x1200___4AA/16AF___82.78 FPS
1600x1200___6AA/16AF___76.07 FPS

The rest of my system is in my sig. With my 6800GT leaving today I didn't have a chance to even play the game with either card so I unfortunately can't tell you how the gameplay felt.

 

[furie27]

Nevermind, reread what was going on.

 

[jpeyton]

Wow, almost a 20FPS advantage on the XT over the GT@Ultra in prison_05 16x12 4x/16x

 

[wingm8]

The 6800 takes a huge performance hit at higher resolution and quality settings, while the x800 mainly stays strong.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

nice to see that 16xAF only incurs a 1 fps hit on the 6800gt i think i might jus be playin 4xaa and 16xaf

 

[Elfear]

Ya, I was surprised that 16AF made so little of a performance hit. What really hurt the 6800GT was the 8SAA. It was definitely unplayable at the higher resolutions. Is there really that big a difference in IQ between Nvidia's 8AA Super Sampling and ATI's 6AA Multi-Sampling to justify such a performance hit?

 

[stelleg151]

Remember, those are the newest drivers for ATI, but not for NVidia.

 

[Elfear]

Which are the newest for Nvidia? I know they have the 67.02 drivers and I thought about using them but review sites have said that they don't make much difference compared to the 66.93s.

 

[stelleg151]

Well, the reviews done with the 67.02's (Anandtech and HardOCP) show the NVidia and ATI cards to be a lot closer in performance than the reviews that use the 66.93s. This leads me to believe that they do make a difference.

 

[Elfear]

Which specific reviews were you thinking of? Most of the reviews I read showed a fairly big difference between the 6800s and X800s at high resolution with lots of eye-candy. Maybe I'll se if my buddy can bench with both sets of drivers.

 

[1ManArmY]

How do you bench HL2?

 

[Elfear]

Here are the instructions from the second page of Anandtech's HL2 review.

"Unlike Doom 3, Half Life 2 has no build in benchmark demo but it has full benchmark functionality. To run a Half Life 2 timedemo you must first modify your Half Life 2 shortcut to include the -console switch then launch the game.

Once Half Life 2 loads, simply type timedemo followed by the name of the demo file you would like to run. All Half Life 2 demos must reside in the C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\username\half-life 2\hl2\ directory."

They also have a link to their custom demos on the same page so you don't have to make your own. Also, instead of modifying your Half Life 2 shortcut, you can also start the game, go into options, keyboard tab, advanced options, and then click enable console. Now from the main screen you just hit the "~" button and type "timedemo" in followed by the name of the demo you wish to use which should populate automatically.

Only average fps are given from the console command. I'd like to figure out a way to get minimum frames too since I've heard that the 6800s maintain a better minimum fps even though their average fps isn't as good as the X800s.

 

[Gagabiji]

Pics of the game or BAN.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: Elfear
Ya, I was surprised that 16AF made so little of a performance hit. What really hurt the 6800GT was the 8SAA. It was definitely unplayable at the higher resolutions. Is there really that big a difference in IQ between Nvidia's 8AA Super Sampling and ATI's 6AA Multi-Sampling to justify such a performance hit?

In a word, no. Enabling TAA along with 4XAA would give you 8X effective AA on the XT and would definately be playable even at 1600x1200. This type of setting is not even remotely playable on the 6800 cards.

The 8SAA is really meant for older games like Quake 3 and such.

 

[imported_OnYX]

thanks for posting these impressive numbers. I really can't wait for my Gigabyte X800 XT to arrive considering there's not much of a difference between the XT and the XT PE

SirDude, I think there are already too many pics out on the web; that game is meant to be played

 

[Elfear]

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this but I'm not actually sure how to post pics.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Elfear
I'm a little embarrassed to admit this but I'm not actually sure how to post pics.

you need some webspace first

 

[JackBurton]

Take this into consideration. When looking at the benchmarks, what you should be concentrating on is the benchmark that ran the slowest for each card. In this case, it was the canals_08 test, and the most practical resolution would be 1600x1200 @ 4AA/16AF. In this test, the GT@Ultra scored ~58FPS and the X800XT PE scored ~67FPS. Now that is only a 9FPS difference. Not bad for a <$399 card.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: JackBurton
Take this into consideration. When looking at the benchmarks, what you should be concentrating on is the benchmark that ran the slowest for each card. In this case, it was the canals_08 test, and the most practical resolution would be 1600x1200 @ 4AA/16AF. In this test, the GT@Ultra scored ~58FPS and the X800XT PE scored ~67FPS. Now that is only a 9FPS difference. Not bad for a <$399 card.

True, but really you should compare the two at stock GT speeds as the X800XT can oc too. The 6800GT definetely does a nice job for what you pay.

 

[1ManArmY]

Thanks for the instructions